The collection includes three series. The School of Public and Development Management series include conference and seminar documents, and documents related to urbanisation, the reconstruction and development programme, public development and Gauteng government. The PLANACT series include area and case specific documents, local government documents, documents associated with the Institute for Planning Research, documents describing some of PLANACT's Gauteng initiatives, the organisational processes of PLANACT and the Golden Highway Development Corporation. The Central Witwatersrand Metropolitan Chamber series includes documents on detentions and court cases, Soweto Development, Chamber meetings and related process, task teams and working groups and the Regional Services Council.

The collection is arranged according to the chapter structure of The Dream Deferred. Written in eight parts The Dream Deferred roughly spans a century, from the early 1900s to 2007 when the book was published.

Interview transcripts are grouped with relevant chapters and correlate to interviews recorded on audio casette / CD / mini disc classified under ‘X’.

The records that make up the collection constitute two discrete groups. The first record is a ring-bound copy of the submission that Behr had made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996 on his activities as a paid spy of the South African Police and later as an agent for the African National Congress (ANC).

The second set of records is correspondence between Behr and Brandon Hamber of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in which they discuss the modalities for the “coming out” of spies and the possibility of victim-offender mediation. The correspondence spans the period 9 February 1997 to 26 April 1997.

Materials collected from TRC Archival Audit.

The TRC Archival Audit

SAHA and Historical Papers, University of Witwatersrand have embarked on a project to locate and retrieve records relating to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). The project entailed conducting an archival audit of all existing TRC records in order to identify and locate documentation in danger of being lost.

In the process of conducting the archival audit, SAHA and HP located many collections from individuals and organizations that participated in the TRC process. Selections from these materials as well as TRC related material found in the freedom of Information Collection and other pre-existing SAHA and HP collections, were digitized and can be accessed online at http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/

A guide to archival resources relating to South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission can also be found at http://truth.wwl.wits.ac.za/trc_directory.pdf

The Mafela Trust collection consists of paper-based materials, digital materials, photographs, oral history interviews (audio cassettes and Hi8 video cassettes), and VHS video material.

The original order in which materials were received was not retained. A discussion with the Mafela Trust's national coordinator revealed that no proper filing system was in place in the office of origin, and his subsequent artificial order (defined by sections Vatican A, B, C etc.) did not allow for effective and systematic arrangement and retrieval of archival materials. (Meticulous record-keeping allows for reversal of current arrangement). The current system of arrangement embarks on an attempt to reflect the organisation's developmental history in terms of its aims and objectives, and thus allows for more effective access to the materials.

The paper-based and digital collections of the Mafela Trust archives have been arranged as two separate series. Although some duplication of documents exist, especially with materials created around 2000 onwards, the first series of paper-based materials contain archives that were generally created prior to 2000, and includes a fairly large number of handwritten and manuscript material. 49 items (625pp) from this series have been digitised to facilitate access. The digital collection commences circa late 1990s/2000+. It should be noted that the arrangement of the paper-based collection does not correspond with that of the digital collection.

This collection consists of books, audio/video tapes, photographs, long player records and T-shirts, all related to various solidarity movements for which Lucia Raadschelders worked.

The collection summarises the activities in which Raadschelders was involved during the years that she spent as an anti-apartheid activist, in Holland and in the Southern Africa Sub-region. These concern in particular, the things that she witnessed.

The record collection consists of 129 archival boxes, occupying approximately 12 linear metres. The collection covers the period 1988-2002.

Laura Pollecutt's political activism started with her involvement in the Progressive Party. She later became a prominent member of the Southern Transvaal branch of the Black Sash, participating in numerous alliances and campaigns. She worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1997, first as Communication Officer, and later as special researcher for the hearing into the Media Under Apartheid. This led to her role in research and co-ordination for the TRC hearing on the Media and Apartheid in September 1997. Pollecutt wrote the final report with the assistance of Hugh Lewin.

In 2013 SAHA conducted an oral history and photographic project exploring the legacy of the 1913 Land Act in three communities (Braklaagte, Driefontein and Mogopa) in South Africa in order to mark the centenary of this act. Contained in this collection are the materials produced and collected in the course of Land Act Legacy Project. The collection consists of oral history materials, photographs taken during the project, materials collected from community members and project documentation.

The collection is divided into two parts: A. Kempton Park Negotiations and B. Transitional Executive Council. This reflects the two capacities in which the records were generated or assembled by Khalik Mayet, and the fact that they were donated to SAHA by him in 1993 and 1994 as two distant records accumulations (acquisitions 93-006,94-004).

The records in this group include the KCP Constitution, code of conduct, manifesto and background information.